


Have You Seen My Girlfriend?

by makingitwork



Series: Bughead Prompts [35]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: AU, Drabble, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Fluffy, Oblivious Betty, One Shot, bughead - Freeform, smitten jughead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 18:57:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15735420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makingitwork/pseuds/makingitwork
Summary: Jughead is whipped for his gal.





	Have You Seen My Girlfriend?

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you 
> 
> Enjoy!

 

Veronica snorts, rolling her eyes and crunching on a black olive. "Seriously girl, if you don't see that your boyfriend is  _whipped,_ then I may have to rethink how smart you are." 

Betty frowned, picking at her salad. "What does that even mean?" She glanced up at her raven-haired friend, but Veronica was distracted by a message on her phone. She pierced a salad leaf and examined it in the afternoon sunlight. A dark, celery vein rain through the centre and she set it down in mild disgust. She was done with lunch, she decided. Clipping the lid back onto her container, she folded her arms and rested on her elbows, relaxing in the warmth. 

Her best friend's voice pulled her out of her reverie. "It means that he'd do anything for you and you wouldn't even have to try. Trust me. I've got Archiekins under my thumb- just about- but you have Jughead  _wrapped_ around your finger, girl, and you don't have to put in any effort at all." 

Betty dismisses the comments. She dismisses a lot of what Veronica says. Though her best friend is incredibly smart in a lot of ways, she also has a lot of weird views that Betty thinks are better left for socialites and rich kids than for former mathletes. 

But it's like when someone points out how much you blink, suddenly you can't  _help_ but notice it. 

Jughead's waiting without fail by her locker; one of his pleased, private grins reserved only for her on his face. Arms crossed, backpack on, and floppy hair a mess. "Hey, Betts," he greets as she reaches over to peck his cheek. "How was practise?" 

"Same as usual," she says hesitantly, keeping him in her peripheral as she loads in the books she won't need tonight. She wants to test the waters. She wants to see if maybe V is right. "Would you carry my books?" She asks, braced for rejection, and she's left stumped when he takes all of them out of her hands without so much as a blink. 

"Sure. Anyway, I was talking to Weatherbee today and you'll never guess..." 

She falls into familiar step beside him, but her eyes are on the books in his hands. Does she have power, here? She pushes the thought from her mind. No. No, of course she doesn't. Jughead's just being a kind, attentive boyfriend. She feels bad for assuming otherwise. They've only been dating for two weeks now, but she's fairly certain that even before then, he would have carried her books for her. It has nothing to do with being whipped, she's sure of it. She focuses on his latest lead for the school article, and in a rare display of public affection, she lets her tongue slide between his lips as they kiss in parting on the sidewalk. 

She giggles as he stands; dazed. She takes her books back and throws him a wave over her shoulder as she bounds into her house. 

She sleeps easy, and she walks to school with Archie and she marvels at how perfect her life seems to be at the moment. When they get to the common room, Veronica's already sitting on one of the sofas and Archie drops down beside her. Betty sits on the large armchair adjacent to them, and they talk about the party that Veronica is planning for her mother. Archie notices Jughead entering; late as usual, first and waves. Jughead waves back, before perching himself on the arm of Betty's chair, dropping a kiss onto her head. "Greetings mortals," he murmured, tugging on her ponytail, and she scoffs, reaching into her bag for her planner. 

"Jug, isn't that the same shirt you were wearing yesterday?" Veronica asks, sipping at her latte. 

Jughead swipes his hand through his hair and picks at his crumpled shirt. "Yup." He replies, popping the 'p' sound.

Betty watches as Veronica winces with distaste. "You have nothing else in your loner-chic wardrobe?" 

"Considering I don't have a wardrobe, or a bedroom, I'm afraid not." He snipes back, and his tone of voice is harsh with the edge that Betty recognises from seeing him talk to his dad. "I'm sorry if this offends you, Veronica. Not all of us have walk-in-wardrobes paid for on daddy's dime." 

Glossy purple lips smack shut as Veronica looks down at her phone; shame faced. Archie pipes up though, his voice pure concern. "You know you still have a place with me and my dad, right, Jug?" 

Jughead softens a little, and nods. "I know, Archie. I just wanna figure some stuff out on my own for a while. My dad's trying to get clean, I wanna...I wanna give him a chance to get there." 

Betty wisely chooses not to get involved in this conversation. She's been down that road too many times. Instead, she gets frustrated over the fact that she can't find her pencil case even though she's certain she packed it last night- with a groan, she remembers taking it out this morning to make a few more cue cards. "Oh no," she moans, resting her forehead in her hands. "I'm an idiot. I left my pencil case at home." 

"Take mine," Jughead offers, opening his satchel and passing over his minimalist see-through case. Betty can feel the anxiety that threatened her heart with barbed wire for a moment- recede into thornless vines that scramble away. She clutches the plastic in her fingers and murmurs a thank you. His hand starts kneading the back of her neck, and he shrugs like it's nothing. "I use my laptop anyway." 

His hands are magic on her, and she relaxes into his ministrations before Archie's standing up. "Hey, it's Dilton, should we-"

"Definitely!" Jughead chirps, and the two of them are gone. 

"Oh yeah," Veronica snorts, finishing her coffee. "He's totally  _not_ whipped on you."

Betty blinks in surprise, but the pencil case in her hands begs to differ. If he uses his laptop- why does he even have one in the first place? 

 

Like a scientist, she has a hypothesis that she should test. 

She starts out with little things, innocuous at first. When he's at her house, she asks him for a glass of water and he'll do it without batting an eye. She shivers, his coat is hers. Her phone's out of battery, he passes his charger to her. 

She wants to up the ante a little bit, so one day, as she's sitting cross legged on her bed in her pyjamas and he's sprawled out beside her, a book propped up on his stomach as he does the assigned reading, she reaches for his phone. "What's the passcode?" She asks casually, and he flips the page, barely looking up as he nestles his hip further next to her knee. 

"0303," he says easily. 

Her heart thuds loudly in her chest for a moment. That's her birthday. Fighting her smile, lest it alerts him, she presses in the code and sure enough, his home screen is revealed to her. His layout is a frazzled mess compared to hers. Her phone is organised with all the apps in corresponding folders, but Jughead has fifteen pages here, some of which only have one app on the screen. She's not about to go snooping through his messages, so instead she goes to his photos. There aren't many. Less than twenty in total and more than half of them are screen shots of locations and emails. 

The others though? They're all of her. Some with her and Jughead that she's taken on his phone, other's that he's taken when she's adamantly trying to get the phone out of her face. It makes her smile as she swipes through the limited selection. Blurry images remind her of fuzzy memories; milkshake and laughter and first kisses replay in her head. She goes to his spotify and links it up to her speakers, playing one of the songs he's most recently listened to. 

She doesn't recognise the song, but a low bass and an upbeat tempo fills her room and a voice sings out  _I get down with the victim_ and Jughead makes a small noise of recognition, immersed in the book. "Oh hey I love this song," 

Betty laughs incredulously as she recognises the beat. "Is this the soundtrack to Mission Impossible?" 

He shoots her a fond glare. "It's very motivating." He defends. She grins, feeling like she's learnt something very niche about him. She lies on her back beside him, abandoning her work and staring up at the ceiling as the song plays. It is very energetic and unlike him. She feels privy to something secret. As soon as she's comfortable he sets down his book and looks down at her; half of his face buried into her pillows. "You okay, bumblebee?" 

She nods slowly, leaning over to kiss him. "Better than." 

 

Now that she's aware that base tasks and semi-secretive information are all up for grabs when it comes to her, she starts watching Jughead a little more closely to see what else she can glean. What she uncovers is that Jughead looks at her.  _A lot._ His eyes never seem to stray from her. He's the first to notice whenever she walks into the room, and he smiles so softly she thinks she could shatter him into a thousand pieces. 

When she's giving a speech in assembly, she falters and trips over her words because he's sitting in the front row, leaning forward and just  _gazing_ at her lips. It makes a hot flush crawl up her cheeks and she fights not to look back. 

When they're at her house and he's lazing on the bed, she tugs off her sweater because it's too hot. His sentence doesn't die on his tongue, his words keep coming, just slightly slower, and when her head pops through the opening, his eyes are stuck on her newly exposed midriff. When she smoothes her top down, he doesn't snap his eyes away guiltily, he just seems to come back to sense and reaches full speed again. 

She's starting to realise she can make him short circuit. A kiss leaves him dazed and a little disorientated, holding his hand makes him a dopey sweetheart and she's just noticed that being confident sends him into dreamy heart-eyes mode. She's finally had enough of Cheryl's bullshit and calls her out on it during practise. She whirls on her heel and heads for the door only to stop mid-stride when she sees Jug leaning against the wall, staring at her like she's a goddess just descended onto earth. 

Betty stops to stand beside him, but he seems to be on another plane of existence. Cheryl calls out to them: "Hobo and bride of hobo, you're excused."

But Jughead just grins at her lopsidedly. "Did you see my girlfriend just now?" He says dreamily, staring at Cheryl with a content smile. "She  _kicked your ass_." 

Betty gapes, and has to drag him out of the auditorium as he continues to gush about what a vision she looks like when she's angry. 

She tries to fight her smile, but she can't. He's utterly ridiculous and he's hers. She's not sure about whipped though. The word for her conjures up images of guys trailing after their girlfriends with their tongue lolling out to the ground. That seems too physical, too sexual that it makes her a little uncomfortable. Jughead isn't like that. Sure he notices her body when she wants him to, but it's not a constant thing. His eyes, more often than not, lock into her own and he'll pout if she doesn't kiss him on the cheek. 

 

At lunch the next day, Betty's feeling pretty damn fantastic. She's eating a burger and Jughead's typing away on his laptop as Archie writes out a few new lyrics for his next song, when Veronica daintily drops a parcel onto the table. The three of them look at it, and then up at her. "This," she says with a flourish, sitting down beside her red-headed boyfriend. "Is a gift for you, Jughead." 

She still says his name like it's clunky on her lips, but she's trying, and Betty appreciates that. Jughead stares at the parcel with a frown. "No thanks." He manages, but then Betty elbows him hard and Archie kicks him under the table. He sighs, and half shuts his laptop. "I mean, thank you, Veronica," he amends, reaching for it. It looks fairly light, and he seems unsure what to do with it. 

"It's not a bribe or an insult, it's just..." Veronica twists her lips and half shrugs. "I wanted to do something nice and maybe this isn't what you wanted, but it was my way of saying sorry." 

He carefully opens the paper and is greeted to the sight of three folded flannel shirts, each a different colour. Betty watches his face carefully, but he seems calm. Relaxed even. His shoulders slump and he sets them down onto his lap, looking up at her properly for the first time. "Thank you, Veronica." He says honestly. "It..." he struggles with the words for a moment, but after a beat of effort, finishes, "it means a lot." 

She smiles like victory personified and that makes him huff a laugh. "The colour's a little fresh so it may need to be washed a few times,"

Betty nods, reaching over to touch the soft material. "You can do that at my house." Archie and Jughead snort in unison, and she looks between them; confused. "What?" 

"Nothing, betty," Archie laughs, shoving a handful of fries into his mouth. "It's just  _of course_ you'd offer that. You're totally whipped for Jughead." 

Betty gapes, jaw dropping as she turns to look at her boyfriend, but he's just back on his laptop and half grinning. "What? It's true." He says without glancing up from the screen. 

She meets Veronica's eyes, a pair of onyxes that look as surprised as Betty's sapphires, and they descend into a fit of laughter. 

 

Cheryl glares at them from a table over, and turns to her girls. "It's gross." She says, sipping at her smoothie. "They're all completely whipped for each other. There's no sense of hierarchy." Her voice is clipped, but she can't help from glancing over again a few moments later. Neither can she help the small smile that spreads across her face at the sight of all of them getting along. It's sickening, certainly. 

But it's also a little bit nice. 

**Author's Note:**

> leave a comment/prompt/declaration of love on your way out, pretties! 
> 
> MWAH MWA x


End file.
